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Students at Bristol University on 2017's day of fossil fuel divestment action

Universities are seen as bastions of knowledge and progress – and often
have policies that state their commitment to a just and sustainable future.

So the fact that many still invest heavily in fossil fuels - an industry
that fuels injustice, climate deaths and environmental collapse - is seen by
campaigners as untenable.

Last month students across the UK escalated their mobilisation against
their universities’ complicity in the climate crisis. The student fossil fuel
divestment movement aims not only to remove funds from companies that are
contributing to climate change, but to remove the social license of these corporations.

Divestment commitments by universities are viewed as part of a broader
project to ensure that investments in the fossil fuel industry ethically
blacklisted for wider society, too.

Over the past few years, pressure on universities to divest all their
endowments from fossil fuels – by students supported by student campaign group
People and Planet and the National Union of Students (NUS) - has achieved
remarkable success. Over one-third of universities (60) have committed to
divestment, which equates to a £11 billion loss for fossil fuel corporations
(and hopefully an equal investment for sustainable generation and community
energy projects).

But there is more to be done. Some universities have repeatedly rejected
the moral, social, environmental and financial arguments. So, as the COP23
climate talks concluded in Bonn, some of those students united – in active
solidarity with Indigenous Peoples and frontline communities – to up their
resistance against their institutions’ continued collusion with the fossil fuel
industry.

Lizzy Haughton, a student activist at Manchester University, says that
the university has taken “no action to divest” – despite a three year campaign,
and despite the fact it is the only UK university with ‘social responsibility’
as one of their top three values, and that their £7.6 million investments in
fossil fuel companies make up only 3.9% of their endowment fund. “We had no
choice but to call for a national escalation in campaign tactics,” says
Haughton, “to highlight the disregard universities are showing towards their
students, staff and the climate.”

Manchester’s students teamed up with Boycott Divest Sanctions (BDS) and
other university campaigns. Together, they marched noisily from Manchester
Metropolitan University (which came top in the People
and Planet University League 2017, and has divested) to disrupt the
Board of Governors meeting. The campaign now has proposals going forward at the
next university investment meeting, and has gathered 16,000 signatures on a
petition in less than one month. “Momentum for divestment is strong,” says
Haughton.

Students at Loughborough UniversityStudent campaign groups at Cambridge, Loughborough, Oxford, Leeds, University College
London (UCL), Bristol and Plymouth joined Manchester in the national day of
action.

Mia Finnamore, a
member of Cambridge Zero Carbon, says: “Cambridge University has always been at
the cutting edge of scientific research. However, as long as it invests in
fossil fuels, it capitalises on the deaths of millions of people suffering from
the effects of climate change and contributes to a bleak future of catastrophic
climate change. The university has the responsibility to act as a leader
nationally and globally. When it divests and reinvests in renewable energies,
it will send a strong political message to its planetary audience.”

A group of 21
Cambridge academics have joined the call for full divestment and transparency,
organising a discussion with the governing body. “The pressure on the
university to act is “stronger than ever,” says a representative from Cambridge
Zero Carbon. “Full divestment from fossil fuels is not only financially
prudent, it is also a moral imperative.”

Also in light of the
Paradise Papers, students at Oxford doused themselves in ‘oil’ outside the
major administrative office, and ceremoniously cleaned it up. ”We were met by
ten-plus security guards who would not let us deliver a letter to the
Vice-Chancellor,” says Elana Sulakshana of the campaign group. “We demand
accountability, and we will be back.”

Students at Plymouth
University, too, were met with what they felt was a disproportionately
defensive reaction to their divestment action. “The Vice-Chancellor, Professor
Judith Petts, had ignored our email asking ther to sign the Fossil Fuel Declaration [a document
committing universities to never investing in climate-destructive industries],
says student campaigner Emily Adams, “so we delivered the message in person.”
Three security guards awaited them; “a calm group of students, with words as
their only weapon.”

After some deterrence
tactics by the security guards, three members of senior leadership came out of
the building to meet the students. After speech-making and a discussion, the
University’s Head of Sustainability agreed it was baffling that the university
wouldn’t sign the Declaration.

The Fossil Free UCL
group took a more ‘loving’ approach to their institution’s £12.4 million
investments in fossil fuel companies. They held a symbolic wedding between
their Provost Michael Arthur and the fossil fuel industry. The master of
ceremonies was the Chair of UCL Council, Dame Deanne Julius, who previously
worked for Royal Dutch Shell and BP. “We protested the vested interests at UCL,
and showed our frustration that our views (shared by the majority of students
and staff) are not being taken seriously,” says a spokesperson from the group.
“It seems UCL is being exploited as a money-making business rather than the professional
academic institution it should be. UCL needs to be on the right side of
history.”

Bristol students also
opted for a highly visual action, building a huge pipeline to demonstrate the
fossil fuel extraction projects that the university is funding. Last year, the
campaign achieved a commitment from the institution to divest from all
companies that derive more than 5% of their revenue from coal and tar sands by
January 2018, but it is pushing for movement on gas and oil and a boycott of Barclays,
to match the students’ union’s own. “I am really proud to be a member of this
group,” says campaigner Papatya O’Reilly. “The easy way to respond to last
year's half-baked policy would have been to disband, but we've bounced back
with an incredible amount of energy.”

History confirms the power of collective action by students. Medieval
students formed collectives and rioted. The 1960s saw revolutionary student
mobilisations worldwide. University campuses were sites of resistance vital to
the divestment campaign which contributed to the demise of South Africa’s
Apartheid system. And the fossil fuel divestment movement - at universities and
beyond - is proving similarly powerful. Fossil fuel corporations have five
times more oil, gas and coal in reserves than climate scientists state it is
safe to burn; the overwhelming scientific consensus is that we must keep it in
the ground. “Now more than ever,” says Jade Begay of the Indigenous
Environmental Network, “we need an international movement to stand with
communities on the frontlines of fossil fuel extraction.” And Begay believes
that divestment has a vital role to play. “Urge your universities to do the
morally right thing,” she says, “and rapidly divest from fossil fuels.”

Robbie Young, NUS
Vice-President (Society & Citizenship), says, “In 2016, 14% of university
and 5% of Further Education college governors were linked to the fossil fuel
industry, and £18.7 million-worth of university fossil fuel research took
place. The conflicts of interest here are clear, and we endorse the national
day of action, for students to pressure their institutions to take action in
solidarity with indigenous and frontline communities.”

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